Welcome to Circle Creek Conservation Center

3/23/20: ALL NCLC PROPERTIES, INCLUDING CIRCLE CREEK, ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED TO PUBLIC ACCESS.

Circle Creek Conservation Center is open from dawn to dusk every day, conditions permitting, unless otherwise posted.
Dogs are not allowed on the trails or anywhere on the property. There are no toilets.
Please sign our Trail Use & Release Form before your first visit.

Circle Creek Conservation Center welcomes visitors at the entrance to Circle Creek, one of our largest habitat reserves, along the west bank of the Necanicum River at the south end of Seaside, Oregon. The refurbished barn here functions as a rustic event center. It also serves as the gateway for a pair of nature trails showcasing the Sitka spruce wetlands and the recovering floodplain at the base of iconic Tillamook Head. Circle Creek is the most accessible of our more than 50 properties between the Columbia River and Lincoln County; most are not normally open to the public. (Read why.)

Start your trail walk at the big yellow barn. A large signboard at the entrance displays this illustrated map of the property and its trails, by Astoria artist Sally Lackaff, and the code of conduct (see below). Inside the barn are sign-in sheets required of everyone visiting the property.

Legacy Loop
0.8-mile loop
Walk out the back door of the barn and bear left, following the mowed path north through the recovering forest. Watch for a trail post on your left, marking the start of the Legacy Loop. The trail crosses a small creek and then splits; go either direction to explore the Sitka spruce forest at the base of Tillamook Head. Return as you came.

Wetlands Walk
2.4-mile loop
Walk out the back door of the barn and bear right, following an old farm road and wooden bridge across Circle Creek, then veer left on the mowed path that follows the creek’s curving route through the floodplain. After the trail drops nearly to creek level at the “avulsion point”–where the Necanicum River and Circle Creek converge during periods of high water–follow the mowed path to the left to reach the first of a series of long boardwalks. These boardwalks fill gaps in a berm built decades ago to control flooding; these gaps now allow water to flow freely across the floodplain. At the end of the last section of boardwalk, either return as you came or follow a mowed route east and south to return to the avulsion point and the barn.

DIRECTIONS

Circle Creek Conservation Center is at the end of Rippet Road in Seaside; look for it on the west side of US 101, 0.7 mile north of the junction with US 26. Follow the road west and north a short distance, passing a gravel quarry on your left, to where it ends between two barns.

CODE OF CONDUCT

This is a natural wildlife area;trails are rustic and minimally developed and will have natural hazards associated with them (high water, wild animals, uneven ground, swift rivers, etc.)

The wildlife habitat reserve is private property. You are welcome to hike here after signing the release form (found inside the north barn) absolving the owner of responsibility in case of accident with the understanding that you enter at your own risk. Entering the property without signing the release constitutes trespassing (and nobody wants that).

People+Plants+Wildlife

This male is returning to take his turn incubating the eggs, which are hard to distinguish from the parking lot gravel. The pair started by scraping a slight depression in the gravel, then enhanced it with sticks of wood and

Jeff Roehm is one of NCLC’s most active volunteers. He splits his time among Portland, where he has lived most of his life; Manzanita, where he has a second home; and Seaside, where he grew up and where he serves

When naturalist Neal Maine looks at a tree—or a single leaf, as in the photo above—he doesn’t just see the tree, or the shrub. He sees a gigantic solar panel. Check it out: Photosynthesis, the encyclopedia reminds us, is